Financial card products have become so universally well known and ubiquitous that they have fundamentally changed the manner in which financial transactions and dealings are viewed and conducted in society today. Financial card products are most commonly represented by plastic card-like members that are offered and provided to customers through financial card issuers (such as banks and other financial institutions). For example, with a financial card, an authorized customer or cardholder is capable of purchasing services and/or merchandise without an immediate, direct exchange of cash. Typically, a customer who has any financial cards keeps these cards in a wallet. However, there are many instances when a customer would not carry a wallet and would keep the financial card in a money clip or even in his pocket.
Even though financial cards are issued to a single person, or in some cases, families or corporations, anyone who is in possession of a financial card could potentially use it to make a transaction. This is often a problem because credit cards are often stolen or left behind after a transaction.
Previous systems to help customers keep track of their financial cards consisted of a special wallet built with a sensor between the flaps where the financial card sits. When a customer removes a financial card, the separators (the flaps between the cards) in the wallet will come in contact, which completes a circuit to trigger a warning beep. The wallet will continue to beep until the financial card is placed back into the same exact slot from which it was removed. Such systems, however, not only require that a customer buy a specialized wallet in order to solve the problem of losing their financial cards, but also present the problem of being a nuisance to the customer because the wallet may beep continuously as long as the financial card is removed from the wallet. Also, such systems require that a customer keep the financial card in the wallet, and if the wallet breaks or if the customer does not wish to carry the wallet, then the financial cards are no longer protected from being lost.